As part of Star Citizens one-year anniversary celebration since the start of its massively successful crowdfunding drive, Roberts Space Industry founder and Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts announced a new modding competition that will give fans a chance to create the next great ship to be added to the Star Citizen hangar.

The competition will allow teams of up to three people can register for the competition for a chance to have their ship added to the game and win a cool cash prize of $30,000. Teams can register between October 31st and December 31st, 2013, after which theyll need to complete a preliminary challenge to design a particle cannon and submit it via YouTube, where the project will be judged by Chris Roberts and 8 other panel members.

Submissions will be narrowed down to 16 and the remaining 16 will be voted on by the Star Citizen backers. On January 31st, 2014, those 16 teams will begin work on their ships. Starting that same week, Roberts Space Industries YouTube channel will begin airing a new series, The Next Great Starship, which will showcase a work in progress from one of the 16 team every week. Judges will eventually vote the teams down to 2 and the final teams will compete live in from of the judging panel in the final episode on June 8th in Los Angeles.

Are you up for the challenge? Check out the official press release below for more.

Chris Roberts and Cloud Imperium Games Announce The Next Great Starship

Teams of designers and artists to get their chance to create a spaceship that will be part of Star Citizen; Modding competition is unveiled on one year anniversary announcing Roberts' next epic space sim

AUSTIN, TEXAS, October 11, 2013  Legendary computer game designer Chris Roberts and his company, Cloud Imperium Games (CIG), have announced yet another way for fans of Star Citizen to be involved directly in the development of the highly anticipated space sim. The Next Great Starship is a modding competition for teams to design, model and rig a spaceship that will be integrated into Star Citizen. Teams of up to three people are eligible to enter the competition which carries a grand prize of $30,000. Sponsors for the competition include Alienware, AMD, Autodesk, Crytek, Cologne Game Lab, Wacom and YouTube. The contest was officially unveiled last night at the one year anniversary celebration for Star Citizen in Austin.

Teams can register for The Next Great Starship October 31 through December 31. A preliminary challenge involves the making of a fully designed wave particle cannon, submitted via a YouTube video to a nine member judging panel including Chris Roberts and other members of the CIG design and art team, Crytek and even some to-be-named celebrity judges. Those initial entries will be narrowed down to a final 16 and one of the 16 will be voted on by Star Citizen backers. Then those 16 teams will embark on making their Starship entries. Beginning January 31, 2014, episodes of The Next Great Starship will air once a week on the Roberts Space Industries (RSI) YouTube channel with each team providing a work in progress update to the judging panel. Judges will eliminate teams down to a final two which will compete live in front of the judging panel and the community during the final episode that takes place June 8 in Los Angeles.

"Our fans have been clamoring for a way to get even more involved in the making of Star Citizen and I think we've found the ideal solution," said Chris Roberts. "What better way to become part of the game than to create a spaceship that you and your friends can actually fly and take into battle. The winners of this contest will have to travel through an amazing process to get to the end, but there will be no doubt after navigating the weeks and months of tough competition that these three individuals will deserve the crown as designers of The Next Great Starship."

Prizes:

GRAND PRIZE: $30,000 in cash for the team members. Your Great Starship is included in Star Citizen and each member of your team receives the first production models off the press! As well as Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite, Maya Premium and one high-end AMD based system with Radeon R9 290X (for each team member)

SECOND PLACE: $10,000 in cash for the team members. Alienware laptop, Autodesk Maya 2014, AMD Radeon R9 290X (for each team member)

THIRD PLACE: $5,000 in cash for the team members. Autodesk Maya LT, AMD Radeon R9 290X (for each team member)

SPECIALTY PRIZE: (to the most valuable player out of the remaining contestants among the final three teams voted on by the judging panel): One Cintiq Companion, the new Windows 8 "Make the World your Studio" tablet from Wacom

Star Citizen is a crowd funded game that officially launched on October 10 of 2012. Since that time Roberts' company has raised more than $21 million from backers all over the world making Star Citizen the top ranking crowd funded project ever.

About Cloud Imperium Games

Cloud Imperium Games Corporation and its subsidiary Roberts Space Industries was founded in April 2012 by renowned game developer Chris Roberts (Wing Commander, Freelancer, Privateer) and his business partner and long-time international media attorney Ortwin Freyermuth. Under Roberts' leadership using his long-standing relationships in the game space, Cloud Imperium quickly assembled a top tier development team for the creation of art assets, story elements, and an extensive prototype for its first game Star Citizen. Star Citizen is being marketed and launched via www.robertsspaceindustries.com. Cloud Imperium's strategy is about customer acquisition through established game designer fan bases. More information about the company, including jobs and contact information can be found at www.cloudimperiumgames.com.

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Stacy "Martuk" Jones was a long-time news editor and community manager for many of our previous game sites, such as Age of Conan. Stacy has since moved on to become a masked super hero, battling demons in another dimension.